User interface using tagged media, 3d indexed virtual reality images, and global positioning system locations, for electronic commerce

ABSTRACT

A user interface operated via at least one consumer computing device, a database, and at least one host computer processor, provide an electronic commerce (eCommerce) environment for secured transactions between consumer and vendor members subscribed to the environment. Digital product images are scaled into digital images of environments of intended use for virtual reality observation. Tags to product representations or other features of media performance transmissions are scanned by consumer members for product purchasing, saving for later purchase, and/or sharing with other consumers (e.g. via social networks). Consumers create their own consumer product store with an inventory of items saved within the environment database for later purchasing or sharing. Original vendors initially providing items saved by consumers are rewarded commissions if later purchased from other vendors. Sharing saved items between consumers is also rewarded and provides an efficient B2C2C sCommerce environment and marketplace centered on products and driven by consumers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/322,091, filed Dec. 23, 2016; which is a Continuation of PCTInternational Application No. PCT/US2015/037840, filed Jun. 26, 2015;which claims benefit of priority to each of (i) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/073,808, filed Oct. 31, 2014, (ii) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/027,660, filed Jul. 22, 2014, (iii) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/024,589, filed Jul. 15, 2014, (iv) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/023,590, filed Jul. 11, 2014, (v) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/023,070, filed Jul. 10, 2014, (vi) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/020,947, filed Jul. 3, 2014, (vii) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/020,936, filed Jul. 3, 2014, (viii) Provisional U.S.Application No. 62/018,500, filed Jun. 27, 2014; all of theaforementioned priority applications being hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to a system and method providing a userinterface using tagged media, 3D indexed virtual reality images, andglobal positioning system (GPS) location sensing, in an electroniccommerce environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a schematic Venn diagram of an eCommerce environmentaccording to one aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block flow diagram of an eCommerce environmentsystem according to another aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows another schematic block flow diagram for certain furtheraspects of the eCommerce environment and related method shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic block flow diagram of other aspects of aneCommerce environment system according to this disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows another schematic block flow diagram for certain furtheraspects of the eCommerce environment and related method shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic block flow diagram of another aspect of aneCommerce environment according to this disclosure.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of an eCommerce environment accordingto another aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of an eCommerce environment accordingto another aspect of this disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of an eCommerce environment accordingto another aspect of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As illustrated by various descriptions provided below, certain aspectsof this disclosure relate to providing an enhanced electronic commerce(eCommerce) ‘ecosystem’ environment in which numerous benefits areenjoyed by consumers, as well as businesses and other parties involvedin the general supply chain, who are subscribing ‘members’ of theenvironment.

According to certain such aspects, FIG. 1 shows an electronic commerce(eCommerce) ecosystem or environment 50 that facilitates multiplefinancial, product purchase, and sharing transactions betweensubscribing vendor members of a Business/Supply Chain 55 and subscribingconsumer members 60 of the environment. The environment is securelyoperated via a central nervous system 65 that includes one or morecomputer processors or servers, and may also include a user interfacesystem that includes a user input interface and a user output interface(e.g. together “I/O”), such as via a display. As would be apparent toone of ordinary skill based on this disclosure, this system 65 may beimplemented by one or more cooperating computing devices. According toone highly beneficial more detailed embodiment, for example, consumermembers may access the environment via a touch icon on a touch screen ofa mobile computing device, such as for example a mobile phone, notepad,or tablet.

As further shown in FIG. 1, the eCommerce environment 50 provides, inone regard, an Indexed Virtual Reality Consumer Experience 70. Digitalimages of products provided by vendor members are imported by consumermembers into digital images of environments of intended use by theconsumer member (e.g. furniture products in rooms, clothing or jewelryon people, etc.). In another regard, a world experience point ofpurchase (POP) 75 environment provides for vendor members to tag mediatransmissions with ID/purchase information tags for products, services,or other sales items (e.g. “items”) embedded in such media transmissions(e.g. movies, pictures, shows, advertisements, audio). These mediatransmissions can be scanned by consumer members in a manner adapted tocapture the item tags and thereby enable purchasing, reviewing or savingthe item information for later purchase, or sharing of the iteminformation with others. A business-to-consumer-to-consumer (B2C2C)social commerce (sCommerce) 80 environment also promotes and rewardsconsumer members for sharing products with other consumer members.

In addition, a consumer product store 85 environment is also providedthat, among other benefits, virtually replaces and obviates the need forconsumers to purchase items on-line via conventional on-line ‘shoppingcarts’ typically provided by product vendors.

Certain embodiments also provide an environment in which the generalliving experience of consumers (e.g. “world experience”) is betterharnessed for improved eCommerce.

Further detailed embodiments of these and other aspects of thisdisclosure are provided below.

Indexed Virtual Reality Consumer Experience

According to certain aspects of this disclosure, an indexed virtualreality consumer experience 70 environment is provided to enhance aconsumer's ability to virtually observe and integrate a product withinits intended environment of use prior to purchasing that product.

According to certain more detailed embodiments described below, adigital indexed virtual reality image environment is provided with auser interface, comprising a display and user input interface, in whicha purchasing consumer member of the environment can import and positiondigital images of products at multiple positions inserted within adigital image of an intended environment of use for such product—therebytransforming the product and environment images into a fused virtualreality image of the product as integrated within its intendedenvironment of use for virtual reality viewing. Among other benefits,this environment thus allows the consumer member to first ‘try out’ theproduct, in its intended use environment, before purchasing it.

While various architectures may be provided to support the broad aspectsof this virtual reality experience, one particular embodiment isdescribed by reference to FIG. 2 as follows.

As shown in FIG. 2, the Indexed Virtual Reality Consumer Experience 70as a sub-environment under the eCommerce Environment 50 (shown in FIG.1, and incorporated into this FIG. 2 description by reference) includesa Product Provider Interface 116 for product vendor members, and aConsumer User Interface 120 for consumer members, who respectivelysubscribe to the environment. While such subscriptions may take manydifferent forms and requirements to suit a particular need, in onebeneficial arrangement requirements include subscription fees, andagreements to certain policies and procedures such as with respect toensuring privacy, security, appropriate content and other practices inthe respective conduct within the environment.

The consumer user interface 120 provides for multiple avenues by whichappropriate digital images may be acquired via a User Product SelectionInterface 121 for use within the overall indexed virtual realityconsumer experience. A camera may be used for Image Capture 123 forexample, and Range determination 124 may be made for a reference in theimage for use in index scaling of the product image within theenvironment image. For example, certain cameras are commerciallyavailable, as are range measurement tools associated with cameras, andmay be deployed together for this purpose (such as for example an“EasyMeasure™” app commercially available for certain camera phoneplatforms). Content Processing 125 is then performed to provide adigital image together with the range measurement. In addition or in thealternative, a Web Select 122, or other avenues to reference othersources of images (such as stored on a local computer readable or remotememory resource), may be performed to simply select a suitable imagealready provided.

A complex database, or multiple separate or networked databases, may beprovided to support the various activities conducted within theeCommerce environment 50 of FIG. 1, including the sub-environment 70 asfurther herein developed by reference to FIG. 2. Generally, the databasewill include, among other things: consumer member account information &saved images, and other data; and vendor member account information, IDand other relevant information for respective products available forsale, etc.

In the particular embodiment shown in FIG. 2 (and as would applysimilarly to other present embodiments, as apparent to one of ordinaryskill), a Product Provider DB 126 is provided for vendor-relatedpurposes. In this embodiment, an input query 127 can provide access toproduct ID, product images, or other product-related information via theconsumer user interface 120 to support the various business-to-consumer(B2C) activities intended under this eCommerce environment 50 and/ormore specific virtual reality consumer experience 70 sub-environment(and while other purposes, such as business-to-business or “B2B,” canalso be supported by this database and system architecture around it).

Another consumer user database or “DB” 130 is also provided forconsumer-member related purposes, including to store imagecontent/product ID information derived by the User Product Selectioninterface 121, as further developed below.

The consumer user interface 120 further includes a Virtual Interface 148with a Virtual Create Interface 140, and which is supported by a VirtualEngine 150 with Virtual Services 151, which may comprise for example acomputer processor operated according to a set of encoded computerinstructions to perform such respective operations. This arrangementprovides one particular example of a processor-driven support andinterface system for allowing the user to create the digital indexedvirtual reality image that fuses the digital product image into thedigital environment image. That resulting Virtual Content 141 may alsobe stored within the Consumer User DB 130 as shown.

It is to be appreciated that a consumer member is allowed to do a numberof activities with image content, product IDs, and virtual imageenvironments captured or created per the above description. In oneregard, the consumer member may purchase a product related to suchactivities, and which may either be at the point of capture such as atConsumer-Product Purchase Transaction 160 (and which may, or may not,require storing the purchased product information). In another regard,the consumer member may recall a stored record for later evaluation,purchase, or forwarding to another.

In this latter regard, the eCommerce Environment 50 (and including eachrespective sub-environment provided in FIG. 1), may thus be configuredto allow, and in fact promote and reward, a consumer member sharing ofcontent captured or created with the environment with one or more otherconsumer members. In one exemplary embodiment shown, a Social Network(SN)/Media Connect 170 is facilitated within the environment with apublisher hosted interface 172 (e.g. Facebook, for example) to supportsharing of such product information from one consumer member to another(and also sharing of information and transactions betweenbusinesses/vendors). As shown in FIG. 2, an SN Connector 174 related tothe sharing of a product by one consumer member with another consumermember via the SN/Media Connect 170 may result in an item purchase 182by the recipient consumer member of the sharing.

According to a further embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a Post-PublicationMonitor 190 is also supported by the eCommerce Environment system 50(e.g. via the virtual reality consumer experience 70 sub-environment)and monitors the sharing between consumer members as source members andrecipient members, and items purchased 182 as a result. Records ofon-line activity related to such product sharing and related downstreampurchase transactions are stored in a Post-Publication DB 192. AnOffline Tracker 194 is also provided, and which tracks item purchasesmade by a recipient off-line and outside of the virtual reality consumerexperience 70 environment (or broader eCommerce Environment 50, for thatmatter) back to the source recipient of the on-line sharing of the itemby the source member within the environment 50 (e.g. virtual realityconsumer experience 70). Both online and offline SN sharing and relatedpurchases are evaluated by a Reward Analysis 196, and with reward valuedelivered back to the source member, such as by generating a record inthe Consumer User DB 130. Other activity may also be tracked, as furtherdescribed elsewhere herein.

Certain methods associated with the above are also further developed forillustration as follows. As shown in FIG. 3, a User Specifies Product ofInterest 210 involves, among other potential steps, an OnlineInteraction (e.g. on-line environment consumer product store, aselsewhere herein described), or Offline Created Submission (e.g. usertakes a picture). Subsequently, a Virtual Representation of ProductDetermined 220 involves checking a Product DB/Manufacturing Sources 222,and to Derive Representation from a User Submission 224. The User'sVirtual Environment is then created at 230, after which virtual contentwith the product can be published, at 240, potentially with content andlink embedded to track, such as shown at 242. The activity is thentracked at 250 and comprising the User Activity 252, Viewing Activityfor Published Item 254, and Offline tracking for User/Non-user 256. Areward is then provided to the user based on activity, as shown at 260.

Further embodiments of the digital indexed virtual reality product imageexperience aspects of this disclosure are also provided as follows.

According to one further embodiment, the indexed virtual realityenvironment may also provide a diminished virtual reality, in which aconsumer member using the environment may diminish an environment imagewithin a canvas viewer by removing one or more objects from the image.Appropriate diminished reality techniques and related engines forsupporting such embodiment may be similar to, or otherwise madeavailable for such purpose, as disclosed at www.diminishedreality.com,or otherwise by “Metaio™” (www.metaio.com) or by “Kurzweil™”(www.kurzweilai.net/dinninished-reality-software-removes-objects-from-video-in-real-time).Among other benefits, this may allow a consumer member to remove an itemoriginally shown in an environment image in the canvas viewer, in orderto replace it with a new item being reviewed as imported into the samelocation of the environment image within the viewer.

According to still a further embodiment, product images provided forsuch indexed virtual reality viewing may be provided with ‘green screen’or other suitable backgrounds in the respective product image, such thatits imported insertion within the environment image via the canvasviewer is conducted by appropriately filling the background environmentof the product image with the environment image.

According to one embodiment, an indexed virtual reality system isprovided with a digital image of a product, a digital image of anintended environment of use for that product, and a user interfacesystem comprising a display and a user input interface. At least onecomputer processor is also provided and that is configured in anoperating mode to run a set of computer instructions stored innon-transitory computer-readable medium. According to this operatingmode, a user is allowed, via one or more user inputs into the user inputinterface, to show the environment image as a canvas on the display. Theuser is then allowed to show the product image at a chosen positionwithin the environment image on the display.

In a further embodiment, the environment image is associated with aknown depth or distance to a reference object in that image, and theuser is allowed to show the product image at a size dimension and depthlocation for the product image that are index scaled off of thereference of known size dimension and depth location within theenvironment image. As would be apparent to one of ordinary skill, it isfurther appreciated that the target objective of scaling the product andenvironment together may conversely be achieved and performed by insteadadjusting the environment image around the product image. In any case,according to this arrangement and related method, the respective digitalimages of the product and environment are thus transformed by theprocessor and user inputs via the user input interface into a singlecombined, indexed virtual reality image of the product incorporated atthe chosen position with appropriately indexed scale within theenvironment.

According to one mode of this embodiment, an object in a field of viewcaptured by the image provides the reference, and an object range ofdistance in the field of view is provided for the indexed scaling. Inanother embodiment, the object also has a feature with a known dimensionthat is also used for purpose of the index scaling of the product image.

According to another mode, a product dimension tag is provided with theproduct image and provides a feature dimension of a physical feature ofthe product, while an environment dimension tag is provided with theenvironment image and comprising the object dimension and object range.The feature dimension, object dimension, and object range eachcorrespond with virtual feature and object dimensions and a virtualobject range of depth, respectively, and that are each scaled to a size,magnification, and viewing angle for the respective product andenvironment images. According to this arrangement, the user's chosenposition may include a chosen depth for the product image along areference depth axis into the environment image. In this case, theprocessor will typically be configured to index adjust the size of theproduct image at the chosen position.

Alternatively, the user's chosen position may be a chosen locationrelative to perpendicular reference vertical and horizontal axes in areference plane of the environment image, and the user chooses a size ofthe product image and corresponding virtual feature dimension at thechosen position. In this latter case, the processor is configured toindex adjust a chosen depth for the product image along the referencedepth axis into the environment image.

Generally in either case, the virtual feature dimension at the chosendepth, or the chosen depth for the chosen virtual feature dimension, isscaled relative to the respective virtual object dimension and virtualobject range, respectively.

According to another mode, the processor in the operating mode isfurther configured to allow the user to real-time adjust, via theuser-input interface, the chosen position or size of the product imagebetween multiple positions or sizes, respectively, in the environmentimage on the display. The processor then index adjusts the size orchosen position of the product image between multiple sizes orpositions, also respectively, in response to the real-time adjustment bythe user.

In another mode, the processor in the operating mode is further operableto do the following. The user is allowed to adjust at least one of aviewing angle and a magnification setting of the indexed virtual realityimage, thereby adjusting the displayed virtual dimensions and depths ofthe product image and object. The processor then adjusts the perspectiveand/or size of the product image within the environment image tocorrespond with the user adjustment while substantially maintaining theindexed scaling between the respective virtual feature and objectdimensions, while also adjusting the indexed scaling to account fordifferent relative changes in depth and perspective for the respectivefeature and object over varied viewing angles.

In another mode, at least one of the digital images and known dimensionassociated with such image is created by a digital camera measuringapplication.

In another mode, a digital camera with a measuring application isprovided and is used to take at least one of the digital product andenvironment images and associated dimension or range.

In another mode, at least one of the environment and product imagescomprises a 3D image.

In one embodiment of this mode, a 3D digital camera is provided and usedto take the 3D image.

In certain further embodiments operable with other modes describedabove, a measuring application is provided with the digital camera thatis adapted to measure and save a dimension of at least one object in afield of view captured in a digital image by the camera. This is used tomeasure at least one of the feature dimension for the product image, orthe object dimension for the environment image, taken by the camera.

According to another mode, the system includes at least one databasestored in a computer-readable memory and comprising an image library ofdigital images of multiple products including the product image. Theuser accesses the image library and displays the set of digital imagesof multiple products. The user then selects the product image formanipulation into the chosen position within the environment imagecanvas on the display.

In another mode, at least one database stored in a computer-readablememory includes a recallable stored record of the digital image of theenvironment. The user selects from the database and shows theenvironment image on the display as the canvas for later importing ofthe digital image of the product into the canvas.

In yet another mode, the user saves a record of the indexed virtualreality image in a database, and is able to later select from therecallable database and display or electronically transfer the savedindexed virtual reality image.

In another mode, the user is presented with and can activate anelectronic purchase trigger to purchase the product, or a group ofproducts such as for example via a “batch buy” as per under otherembodiments herein described.

In another mode, the environment provides the user an ability to sharethe indexed virtual reality image with another party or within a socialnetwork (SN), and also allows the other users to view the indexedvirtual reality image via the user interface system. In one embodimentof this mode, the sharing is conducted by saving the indexed virtualreality image through a common database with access provided to thesocial network. In another embodiment, a benefit or reward is providedto the user for the sharing. This may be for example via the vendor, orvia a resource or reward system supported within the environment moregenerally. In one particular example, the benefit comprises rewardcredits applicable, e.g. redeemable, for another benefit. In anotherexample, the benefit is a commission from the purchase price paid forthe product by a first recipient party to whom the user shared, or byanother recipient party who received the image as a result of furthersharing from recipients of the user's sharing. It is appreciated thatthese aspects of SN sharing also appropriately apply similarly to otheraspects and embodiments of this disclosure, whereas the SN aspectsdisclosed in context of those other embodiments may also similarly applyto this embodiment.

Another aspect of this disclosure provides the above referenced indexedvirtual reality aspects (and other disclosed aspects and presentembodiments) within a particular beneficial eCommerce environment asfollows. A member interface system is provided in combination with adatabase system that includes a vendor member account database with adigital product image database, and that also includes a consumer memberaccount database with a digital indexed virtual reality image database.

A vendor is allowed (and/or required, if it wishes to participate) tosubscribe as a vendor member within the environment by creating andstoring vendor member records corresponding with a vendor member accountfor the vendor within the vendor member account database via the userinterface system. The vendor member then also registers the digitalimage and related purchase information for the product as one or moreitem records corresponding with the vendor member account within thedatabase system.

The consumer user is also allowed (and/or required) to subscribe as aconsumer member of the environment by creating and storing one or moreconsumer member records corresponding with a consumer member account forthe user within the consumer member account database. The consumermember selects the product image from the digital product image databaseand saves the digital indexed virtual reality image it creates into thedigital indexed virtual reality image database.

According to another mode of the various aspects elsewhere hereindescribed, the user interface system comprises a web-enabled interfacebetween a remote computer and at least one said processor. In oneembodiment of this mode, the user interface system comprises a mobilecomputing device. In one particular example, the mobile computing deviceis connected to a network via a wireless connection. In another example,the mobile computing device comprises a touch screen that comprises thedisplay and the user input interface. The user interface system mayinclude, for example, an application that is activated via a touch iconpresented on the touch screen.

In still further embodiments, an indexed virtual reality environment mayalso be adapted to 3D virtual reality viewing environments via 3Dvirtual reality viewers such that a consumer may immerse into the 3Dlandscape created for a more full simulated 3D experience of the indexedreality image. It is also contemplated that the 3D image of the 3Denvironment may comprise a composite image of multiple imageselectronically stitched together, as would be apparent to one ofordinary skill.

An indexed reality canvas viewer as contemplated herein may be offeredand used separately from an indexed reality canvas creation platform.This may permit someone to view or immerse (e.g. 3D) into an indexedreality image created elsewhere, and/or save all or a portion of suchinto its own storage resource or hosted environment store (e.g. consumerproduct store) of the present embodiments and for potential furthertransactions.

Tagged Products in Media

An embodiment described above as the World Experience Point of Purchase(POP) 75 shown in FIG. 1 generally addresses real-world experienceswhere items available for sale are shown or otherwise included in aformat presented for consumer observation, but not typically for thedirect purpose nor providing an ability for the consumer to acquirerequisite purchase information related to, or to initiate or conduct, apurchase transaction directly from the consumer observation. Examples ofsuch experiences include media transmissions where products or servicesare included or embedded, such as for example movies, songs, televisionshows, or even transmitted media advertisements.

Particular embodiments provided hereunder for this current aspect ofthis disclosure provides tags to coincide with such item representationswithin such media formats and that provide, when scanned by a consumer,a product ID, other product purchase-related information, or links tosuch information or a point of purchase for the respective taggeditem(s). One such highly beneficial embodiment tags and transmitsproduct ID and/or other product purchase-related information with themedia transmission coinciding with a representation of the item, andallows a consumer to scan the media transmission within a systemenabling the consumer to access the product-related information or linknecessary to initiate or conduct a purchase transaction for the item, orto save the information and/or link for a later purchase transaction, orto share the information and/or link with others such as within a socialnetwork.

A more specific embodiment shown in FIG. 4 illustrates certain furtheraspects of a world experience point of purchase (POP) environment shownat POP 75, such as may be provided under a similar broad hostedenvironment as elsewhere herein described such as eCommerce Environment50 in FIG. 1. Components of this POP 75 environment shown in FIG. 4reflecting similar labels and reference numbers to like components shownin FIG. 2 may be similar in nature and function for the present FIG. 4embodiment as per their description above for the FIG. 2 embodiment,except where such components may be otherwise identified and assignedwith unique aspects in this written disclosure.

FIG. 4 shows various components of POP 75 environment where products orother items for sale may be embedded in media transmissions, tagged withitem-related information such as ID or purchase information (or relatedlinks), and scanned with a consumer member for potential saving,sharing, or initiating a purchase transaction as follows.

A media content provider 300 provides a transmittable media content 305that is embedded with a representation of an item for sale. A tag isprovided to correspond with the item representation in the transmittablemedia to provide Product ID Tagged Media 310, although such tag mayinclude product ID information, other product purchase-relatedinformation, or other product information in general, or a combinationof the above. The tag may be provided by the media content provider orproduct provider, such as via a product Provider DB 126 within the POP75 environment. The product ID tagged media 310 is transmitted viatransmission 315 to a consumer user interface 330 that includes a MediaReceiver 340 and User Product Selection Interface 350. Transmission 315may be one transmission with both the media and the tag, or may beseparate transmissions that are transmitted in coordinated fashion toserve the intended purpose of tagging the item to a scanner of thetransmission.

The consumer user interface 330 within this system embodiment of FIG. 4also includes a tag scanner 345 that may be provided under the samedevice or system component as, or separate but associated with, themedia receiver 340. In one embodiment, tag scanner 345 is actuatable bythe consumer to scan the media transmission and capture the taginformation. For example, a tagged item-embedded media transmission froma media publisher (e.g. TV network) may be received by a first mediareceiver 340 at or near the consumer, then processed and re-transmittedvia a local media transmitter at or near the consumer (e.g. local TVresource), which re-transmission may then be received by a second mediareceiver 340 at the consumer (e.g. audio microphone for audio mediacontent, or camera for visual media content). In this case, the tagscanner may be provided by or associated with the second media receiver.It is appreciated, in fact, that multiple transmissions andre-transmissions may be made, and with multiple commercial partiespotentially involved, at various communication nodes between an initialtransmission and reaching the point of the consumer for scanning.

The tag captured by the tag scanner 345 then enters Content Processing354, and such that the product ID and/or purchase-related information(or POP link) may be embedded info 352 within the tag itself, or may bea link or tag info itself to another source of the desired product ID,purchase info, or POP link—such as via a web select 355 path provided bythe system to the user via the user interface.

The consumer according to this present embodiment may be presented witha number of choices following capturing and processing the taginformation and/or POP link, including for example initiating orcompleting a purchase transaction 160 upon being presented with such, orsaving the tagged media or virtual content 141 itself or the Product IDand/or purchase-related info or POP link into the consumer user DB 130for later recall and transacting. The consumer user may also share suchinformation with other members of the environment, such as via a socialnetwork, as similarly described above by reference to the FIG. 2embodiment and shown again in FIG. 4. It is further contemplated thatthere may be one or several products featured in a tagged transmission,with choices provided to the user downstream from the scan or capturepoint of the tag in order to either disregard or pursue a transactionfor any such given product.

A reward system as also previously shown and described above byreference to FIG. 2 is also shown in FIG. 4 as similarly applicable forinclusion as a further beneficial feature under this present embodiment.In addition, it is recognized that the current embodiment comprisesadditional parties involved in ‘sharing’ the product—namely the mediacontent provider, for example, which embeds the item for sale within themedia content, and/or that same party or another party who might providethe actual product ID tag to correspond with the item representation inthe media transmission for scanning. Accordingly, as also shown in FIG.4 between Rewards Analysis 196 and Media Content Provider 300 andProduct ID Tagged Media 310, a rewards system as previously describeabove may also provide rewards to these parties for their contributiontoward delivering the scannable tagged product embedded in the mediatransmission to the consumer for scanning for potential purchase (orfurther sharing).

Further aspects of the disclosure above by reference to FIG. 4 are alsoshown in FIG. 5 along various method flow steps as follows. A tagproviding product (or “item”) ID or other related information or POPlink is tagged to a representation of a product or item in a mediacontent 360, and which tag may be embedded in the original media by themedia creator, or added post-media production. For example, a movie orother video production may be made with a number of products (e.g.furniture, clothing, jewelry, vehicles, etc.) included in variousscenes, and with a record kept of certain such products in relation tothe scenes when they are included (or more generally for the mediaproduction). The original media creator, or another party, may—after thevideo production is already created—later add tags to correspond withthe various products or items represented.

The tagged media is transmitted to the consumer which activates itsscanner 370 for capture and processing of the tag. This may entail thetag linking to a product DB for product ID, purchase information, or POP372; or, the tag as processed may provide such directly to the consumeras shown at 374. According to one example of a tagged link, a databaseof products may be provided for access to the consumer user via the tagin order to find a particular item of interest among multiple suchpotential items in the same media transmission, or the tag may be for aparticular such item itself more directly. According to one example forillustration of a direct tag capability, the user interface may presentthe consumer for example with a button (e.g. touch icon on a touchscreen) or other indicia or ability to immediately initiate or conduct apurchase transaction. The media, item representation, tag, and scannermay be audio in nature, as at 376, or visual in nature as at 378. Or,these may be mixed. For example, a media transmission may include bothaudio and visual components, the item representation may be provided ineither format, and the tag and related scanner may also be configured ineither format (and not necessarily the same format as the productrepresentation—e.g. a visual product representation may be tagged withan audio tag and scanned with an audio scanner). Moreover, an audio tagmay not necessarily be audible. Still further, other formats arecontemplated. For example, RF or other form of wireless signals mayprovide the requisite tag (and corresponding scanner platform format).In another example, the media transmission itself may be fullyelectronic—e.g. streaming video for example. In this case, the media maythen be re-transmitted visually and/or audio, such as via a computer or“smart” TV and with related tags and scanning associated with thatre-transmission. Or, the tag may be digitally associated with thestreaming video and/or audio media itself and may be tagged within thecomputer-processor hosted environment. In one particular embodiment forillustration, a streaming video or audio media transmission streaming ona computer processor is embedded with a product representation, and witha tag included with or superimposed with the stream via the processor,and also with the scanner enabled on the processor itself.

In further embodiments, all tagged features (e.g. embedded products) ofa given media transmission may also be accessed by a consumer user by aquery for such directed at the media transmission, performance, orcontent therein.

In still a more detailed example, the environment is provided in amanner such that items available for sale and embedded in the streamingmedia transmission are indicated to the user during the transmission,such as for example in a separate window displayed to coincide with thestreaming media transmission. In a further example, such separateproduct window may be updated during the course of the mediatransmission to coincide with the timing of different items embeddedwithin portions of the transmission.

In another example, a library of items embedded and tagged for aparticular transmission is accessible to a user. In one furthervariation of this example, a user may for example be able to access theitem, and link to the portion of the media transmission where the itemis represented in order to observe the item as portrayed or otherwisepresented.

In still a further embodiment, a given item may be embedded in variousdifferent media transmissions, and a user accessing that item may beable to access and select the various media transmissions where the itemis embedded for observation.

A number of different specific tags may be used to suit a particularintended environment of use, either to accommodate the format of themedia transmission itself, or of the user interface where the mediatransmission will be presented to and observed by a user for scanningand capturing the respective item tags. Examples of visual tagsassociated with this present embodiment (and other aspects andembodiments elsewhere herein described) may include, for example a quickresponse or ‘QR’ code, ‘General Specifications’ or ‘GS1’ code (e.g.described for example at www.gs1.org), universal product code or ‘UPC,’or other form of barcode (e.g. which may be optical, magnetic, or otherformat), that is presented in a portion of a field of view of a visualmedia transmission. Certain such coding conventions are proprietary andsubscription based with pools of products given associated codeassignments in corresponding registered databases. In certainembodiments, the environment will involve subscriptions to one or moreof such pools to provide ready access to products and the associatedcodes within the environment for associated eCommerce transactionscontemplated hereunder. Other technologies such as “iBeacon™”(commercially available by Apple Corp.), or other form of radiofrequency(RF) or other form of data transmission or communication (e.g. magnetic,Bluetooth™, other internet of things or “iOt” sensors and transmissionplatforms), can also be applied for the purpose of tagging and scanningproducts for recognition and potential purchase, and in certainapplications may also be employed in a new use and system environment tosuit the appropriate implementations of various embodiments herein shownand/or described.

It is also appreciated that point of purchase systems with certain ‘tag’indicia such as of the types described above (e.g. QR or other form ofbarcodes) may be provided on actual products or static advertisementssuch as billboards or print material, and thus provide significantbenefit to a consumer presented with such material. Such sourcing ofsales items and related purchase information is contemplated withinvarious embodiments herein as a suitable sourcing venues and formats forsuch items for further processing and use within those embodiments.

However, such static environments also typically target specificproducts as the purpose of the material itself, and differ significantlyfrom more significant challenges of tagging products embedded withinmedia transmissions.

In another regard, certain media transmissions may themselves be scannedwithin a system in order to identify the media transmission itself. Infact, such scanning may also be provided in conjunction with a purchaseopportunity for that transmission. For example, a song may be receivedand ‘scanned’ to identify the song itself, including to possiblyinitiate a purchase transaction for that song, such as for example viaSHAZAM™, a commercially available application. However, such approachesof merely identifying the media transmission itself, even with furtherlinks that might follow, does not address the different need, challenge,and benefit of identifying a product representation imbedded within themedia transmission and that is itself a separate target than the mediatransmission itself. The needs, challenges, and benefits become stillmore unique and distinct where multiple such products may be presentedin the media transmission.

In fact, it is contemplated as a further embodiment hereunder that suchan audio recognition application including or similar perhaps to SHAZAM™may be employed as a suitable scanner for certain implementations of theother embodiments herein described for audio-based tags and respectivescanners. Such an embodiment harnesses the audio recognition capabilityprovided by the scanner, but in a new and beneficial applied use andenvironment configured to capture an audio tag to identify a productrepresentation embedded within an audio transmission and provide productID, purchase-related information, or POP—and not for the actual audiotransmission itself. Moreover, in a further embodiment, the audiorecognition format is applied to capture an audio tag transmitted incombination with a visual media transmission, wherein the productrepresentation is imbedded within the visual media transmission, and therecognized audio tag results in providing the consumer the productinformation required for the purchase or related purchase decision.

As further shown in FIG. 5, in certain further aspects of thisembodiment the Consumer's tagged record is created (such as is shown atoperation 380 in FIG. 5), at which point the Consumer has choices, suchas via respective inputs into the UI, re: one or a combination ofactivities regarding product info (382). These include, for example,purchasing the product (382), saving the product info (384), and/or toshare the product info with one or more links to track the sharingand/or downstream transactions following that sharing (386). Suchactivities may then be tracked (390), including for example the User'sactivity (e.g. purchase)(392), viewing activity for published (e.g.shared) item (394), and/or off-line tracking for user/non-user (such asfor example separate direct retail purchasing which may still be linkedback to the environment and respective purchasing consumer)(396).Various rewards may also be applied within the environment based on therespective activity (398), such as is also elsewhere herein describedand applicable in this embodiment.

According to another embodiment of this general aspect, it is alsoappreciated that in certain circumstances products embedded in mediatransmissions or performances may be tagged by other approaches thanembedding such tags within the performance itself. For example, in astreaming media transmission, an indicia (e.g. key word, which may forexample be presented with a logo indicating its purpose to tag) may bepresented to the consumer. The consumer can then input the word into theUI of a computing device running the respective environment ‘app’ andwhich would similarly link to the product information and/or purchasingvenue as if scanned according to the other examples above. This may bebeneficial for example when there is a loud environment (e.g. crowdedvenue) or sound is turned off of a video transmission. Moreover, toprovide user flexibility, multiple forms of tags may be provided toprovide options (e.g. audio and visual/key word).

It is also to be appreciated that the above embodiments are notnecessary limited to only transmitted broadcasts per se. For example, amedia performance may be played on a computing device from any form ofsource medium, e.g. audio file, video file (e.g. DVD, mpeg), etc. andmay have associated tags as described above.

Moreover, in still another embodiment, a media performance may be‘tagged’ via a separate source that coincides with the media as it isbeing performed. For example, a media transmission via a hosted system(e.g. television, web broadcast, etc.) is well registered within asystem as to the timing of that broadcast. Merely recognizing the timingof the product interest, to coincide with the timing of thetransmission, can link to the product information. In one more specificexample, the portion of the media performance that is scanned can berecognized for its contents, including the product that can thus beidentified and linked (e.g. without any other associated embedded tags).In another example, merely indicating what channel is being watched andproviding a user input at a particular time can be registered to thecoincidental timed portion of the media transmission, which is thus usedby the system to identify the product(s) embedded therein.

Still in further embodiments, it is also recognized that a user may notnecessarily be required to initiate a scan via a user input in order toreceive a product tag from a respective media transmission. While the‘app’ is activated and ‘live’ on an appropriate computing device, it maybe configured to actively recognize when scan points occur in a mediatransmission that is being performed (or be triggered into scan modewhen a tag is transmitted). This approach may allow the consumer user tobe more passive, and merely view the UI display of the computing devicerunning the app in order to see what products are being featured. A userinput may then be provided when a particular product of interest appearsas tagged and featured. Still further to this embodiment, the consumerapp may store a cache of such embedded products into the consumer user'saccount for later review and either discarded or saved into the consumerproduct store (see below). Any or a combination of these aboveembodiments may be provided via the app for the consumer user asoptions, and who may choose which option they wish to operate under at agiven time (or user profile set by that consumer). Moreover, suchoptions may be made available only at certain levels of membership inthe environment (e.g. lower level for one cost, or free, with morefeatures that can be added as ‘pay for’ options under the consumermember's account).

Consumer Product Store

As introduced above, according to an additional aspect of thisdisclosure, the environment 50 (e.g. as shown in FIG. 1, and thus alsoincorporated herein to this embodiment as well by reference) alsoprovides an ability for consumer members to create their own consumerproduct store 85 as an environment that, among other benefits, virtuallyreplaces and obviates the need for conventional on-line ‘shopping carts’typically provided by product vendors for consumers to source andpurchase items electronically on-line. It is appreciated according toembodiments herein described that a full circle of transactions such aspurchasing, saving, sharing, selling items are available in theeCommerce environment for items featured for consumer product storeinclusion

More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the consumer product store85 environment allows a consumer member to create its own inventory asits own store of items for potential purchase that are saved by thatconsumer member as a “source consumer member” in a consumer userdatabase 130 corresponding with its respective consumer member account132 and as a consumer store inventory 134. This consumer store inventory134 is maintained off-line for later on-line access by the sourceconsumer member.

The consumer product store 85 environment provides a consumer userinterface 330 that may be otherwise similar to that provided for otherembodiments previously described above, and in fact may support multipleof the present embodiments. Interface 330 allows a consumer user tosource such items for its respective customer inventory from a number ofdifferent origination sources. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, suchitems may be derived from other aspects of the present embodiments inthis disclosure, such as for example via Indexed Virtual RealityConsumer Experience 70, World Experience POP 75, or sharing via B-C-CsCommerce 80, as further described elsewhere herein. As shown atWeb/Environment Sourcing 90, the items may also simply be sourced via abrowsing capability provided within the environment to browse, searchfor, or otherwise find items generally via the web, or as may beotherwise provided by registered vendor members of the environment viaProduct Provider Interface 116 into Product Provider DB 126 (orotherwise ‘captured’ by the consumer member for saving into its consumerstore). This sourcing may be accomplished, for example, by the consumermember inputting an Input Query 127 via the interface 330 to read orview a product ID and/or other information such as a product image orrendering, product purchase information, etc. The consumer member canthus access one or more such items, such as for example item 1 through Nshown in FIG. 6, and save one or more of them into the consumer member'sown consumer store inventory 134. It is further appreciated that theconsumer member may also conduct other operations with the originallysourced item, either prior to saving such item or after recalling suchitem via the consumer store inventory 134. This includes, for example,evaluating the item via Indexed Virtual Reality Consumer Experience 70,and either then save (or re-save) the item itself (or in this specificexample, save the item as embedded within the indexed virtual realityenvironment).

It is also appreciated that the consumer member may also save such itemswithin its own consumer store inventory 134 along with other informationprovided by the consumer member regarding the item (e.g. comments aboutthe item, or sub-folders or other forms of organization orcategorizations that a user may assign to items, or groups of items,within the environment).

After saving items to the consumer store inventory 134, the consumer canthen later recall the item and choose to initiate a purchase item 182via an electronic purchase transaction 160. The actual purchasetransaction itself may take a number of different transactional paths.In a highly beneficial embodiment however, at the time upon saving theitem into its consumer store inventory 134, a consumer member can beaware of and agree to all aspects of a purchase transaction for the item(e.g. price, shipping etc.), and all consumer purchase information (e.g.payment vehicle, credit card info, shipping address, etc.) may also bealready available for that consumer member within the consumer memberaccount info 132 of the consumer member DB 130. In this circumstance,the consumer member can complete the full purchase transaction via asingle click (or ‘tap’ in the case of touch screens for example), e.g.via a “buy now” or prompt and input of similar purpose. In anotherfurther embodiment, the consumer member may save the item with somepurchase contingencies that will initiate, and/or complete, thepurchase. This may comprise, for example, a preset date (e.g. someone'sbirthday, or based upon expected income/paycheck/bank balance etc.).

In yet a further embodiment, such contingencies may include ‘striketerms’ at which the consumer member may be willing to buy the item. Forexample, the item may be initially sourced and stored as available froma particular vendor at a particular price (and/or delivery terms),and/or number of vendors within a range of such. The consumer member maystore the item into the consumer product store inventory, but tag it tothe member's own defined terms at which the member is willing topurchase the item. Vendors are given access to such ‘contingent purchasetags’ in the consumer's product store, and an opportunity to offer theitem at the defined contingency terms.

The embodiment immediately above represents an example of a broaderfurther aspect of the consumer product store, wherein vendors are ableto access and use this information to provide offers to the consumermember related to that person's inventory of potential purchases (andrelated terms). Whether or not contingency terms are provided by theconsumer member, knowledge that the member is interested in purchasingprovides a powerful platform for informed, consumer-specific targetedsales. This essentially may manifest, in some embodiments, in a reverseauction environment wherein vendors can compete for best price/terms tothe consumer member.

Other embodiments also contemplate pooling consumer members togetherwithin the environment as a syndicate in order to bundle togetherbundled purchases, which may in certain circumstances provide sufficientbuying power to drive and/or negotiate bulk discounts in pricing orother advantageous terms. This may be done by the voluntary connectionsand actions between the consumer members in pooling together, and/or maybe facilitated by operations provided by the at least one computerprocessor hosting the environment that connects such consumer memberstogether via their similar or related saved items in their respectiveconsumer stores. Similarly, such environment host operations may beapplied to pooling or otherwise syndicating together vendors for theirrespective benefits in conducting their side of eCommerce transactionsfacilitated and/or conducted within the environment.

Additional embodiments herein contemplated also provide otherinformation in conjunction with the saved product store. This includes,for example, recording biometrics during a shopping experience (and evenmore specifically while viewing and saving a particular product). Thismay be accomplished, for example, by certain sensors (e.g. heart rate,temperature, etc.) provided with wearable computing devices (e.g.watches).

Further aspects regarding vendor initiated offers within the environmentto consumer members are also described elsewhere herein. Upon a consumermember initiating the item purchase 182, the environment engine may thenconduct a number of different operations. In one embodiment, the enginemay notify and prompt the consumer member with purchase terms (e.g.price and delivery terms) to confirm the purchase (e.g. which may be viaa subsequent “click” on such button or other indicia provided for suchconfirmation input). In another embodiment, the engine compares theitem's purchase information at the time it was saved, against itspurchase information at the time of purchase. If something has changed,e.g. price or delivery terms, the engine informs the consumer member ofthe new terms and for confirmation the consumer member still wants topurchase, or to cancel the purchase per the new terms. In still afurther embodiment, a consumer member can choose a range within which apurchase term may migrate and the consumer member will still wish topurchase the item (e.g. limit on % increase from the original purchaseprice). In the event a change is identified from the original terms, butwithin the range, the purchase transaction will still be completed viathe original order without requiring confirmation.

It is also contemplated that a particular item featured within thisenvironment 85 may be made available for purchase from a number ofdifferent vendor members of the environment. In an additionalembodiment, the environment engine conducts a source vendor 184operation in response to the consumer member's item purchase 182 inputand to conduct the transaction and ship (where indicated) the item tothe purchaser (as shown at transaction/ship 186). This can be fully orpartially transparent to the consumer member, rendering the transactionproduct-centric—and vendor agnostic—for the consumer member. In fact,even the original item sourcing from product provider interface 116 andresulting from a query 127 may be vendor agnostic and/or transparent.

It is also contemplated that the respective eCommerce environment maycomprise a number of different source vendor members for a particularitem subject to an item purchase 182 input from a consumer member. Inthis case, a decision between such vendor members for a respective itempurchase may be made by the engine supporting the environment itself.Such decision may be based on certain criteria that are either defaultcriteria within the system or set by the consumer member. Such criteriamay include, for example, lowest price, fastest shipping, or preferredvendor members (e.g. as preferred by the consumer member, or by metricsassigned by the environment administration), or a combination of suchmetrics. In the alternative or in addition to such filtering by theengine, the engine may present multiple vendor members identified viathe sourcing for the purchase item to the consumer member for his or herown choosing.

According to another consumer store environment embodiment, a consumermember may also bundle or ‘batch-buy’ multiple items at one time as abundled instruction to the engine, such as for example by clicking ortapping, dragging or swiping, or otherwise identifying with user inputs,multiple items as a batch or bundle and then inputting a batch orbundled purchase instruction. The transactional mechanisms describedabove for the environment engine may then apply for each item (or all atonce) under the bundled purchase transaction, while certain particularsmay potentially vary between specific items in the batch (e.g. if oneitem's price has changed since originally saved in the consumer storeinventory 134, it may be flagged for confirmation prior to initiatingthe purchase of either that one item in the batch, or of the fullbundle—such as for example when multiple different items may relate toeach other, e.g. separate furniture that are intended to be used in thesame room in a coordinated interior design plan). It is furthercontemplated that certain combinations of products may be selectedwithin a batch buy, with other products not included (e.g. as notselected, or specifically “de”-selected from the batch from a sourcelisting of multiple products). Moreover, such batch buy mechanism mayalso be leveraged by the engine supporting the environment to achievebundled pricing discounts—such as if certain items, though soldseparately, are all available from a particular vendor a bundled pricingdiscount might be available under certain agreements with vendor memberschoosing to participate within the environment.

In furtherance of the above aspects, bundling discounts for consumerproduct store inventory items can be vendor initiated. For example, avendor (or broker of vendors) having access to a consumer member'sproduct store inventory might be able to optimize a ‘bundled’ offer ofmultiple products together—and which may provide a unique flexibility inconfiguring such bundles for discounted offerings and/or otherwise foroptimal capital efficiency (both for the vendors, and the consumers). Inone more detailed example, N different vendors may overstock N differentproducts that are all in a consumer member's product store—and which maybe bundled together by a reseller brokering those products together tothe consumer member at bundled discount price (retaining certain marginsfor both the broker, and vendors). Or, the vendors can network directlytogether to leverage their respective products for bundled discountingshared between them. In yet another example, a vendor may have multipleproducts in the consumer member's product store, but one or some havinghigher margin than others (or otherwise being more motivating to sell,e.g. overstock, antiquated model, etc.). A bundled offering maytranslate to leveraging a discount on one item to combined purchasingwith other items.

As illustrated by these foregoing embodiments, and applicable to otherembodiments elsewhere herein described, the consumer product store 85environment allows a consumer member to populate an inventory within hisown store of items that he is exposed to within various walks of life.While this may occur via the product sourcing provided by the particularembodiments of this disclosure, it may also include other productsourcing including in retail environments and thus entering the productinto the environment. Product information, including purchasing andother information, may be thus captured into the environment and under aconsumer product store (or otherwise utilized, e.g. SN sharing etc.)using numerous approaches as would be suitable for the intended purposeof the embodiment as apparently to one of ordinary skill. For example,visual or otherwise recognizable tags may include a quick response or‘QR’ code, ‘General Specifications’ or ‘GS1’ code (e.g. described forexample at www.gs1.org), universal product code or ‘UPC,’ or other formof barcode (e.g. which may be optical, magnetic, or other format), thatprovided with or otherwise tied in the context of the consumer to adesired product being captured. Other technologies such as “iBeacon™”(commercially available by Apple Corp.), or other form of radiofrequency(RF), Bluetooth™, other internet of things or “iOt” sensors andtransmission platforms, magnetic platforms, or other form of datatransmission or communication accessible by an appropriate sensor orscanner, can also be applied for the purpose of tagging and scanningproducts for recognition and potential purchase according to thesevarious aspects and embodiments disclosed. Still further, exposures toproducts via general web browsing (whether within or outside of theenvironment) may also be enabled for product capture and download,saving, sharing, or purchasing via a consumer product store within theenvironment. In yet still

Furthermore, products (or their proximate environments in which theproducts are registered) may be configured to transmit productinformation to a consumer member's respective mobile computing deviceused to host the environment app. This may include for example text orother form of electronic messaging, audio cues (e.g. Siri™), and/orradiofrequency (RF) ID tag transmissions.

By maintaining this store on his or her own behalf within his account inthe environment, the consumer can thus save his ‘likes’ or ‘interests’for later recollection at later points (and/or within consumer-definedcontingency terms) of purchase. The consumer member is then able toinitiate such purchases from its own personal store, without requiringor using any ‘shopping cart’ of any vendor for the item (and in certainembodiments, without directly dealing with the vendor at all). Theconsumer member may also then allow his consumer product store to betargeted by vendors for advantageously targeted single or multi-productdiscount offers. This thus allows the entire consumer experience to beproduct-centric, built around the consumer itself, vs. vendor-centric.Certain embodiments also allow “buy now” opportunities (such as forexample via a single click, touch, or other form of input) for theconsumer member that are both time-shifted and location-shifted awayfrom source exposure to the item as made available by a respectivevendor to the consumer member.

In addition, these various consumer member benefits are also met bycertain distinct benefits for vendors too—for example by providing welldefined targets for presenting offers to consumers (and which may or maynot be ‘informed’ for optimized discounting and/or bundling) who arealready known to be interested in purchasing those particular products.

Another embodiment is also described by reference to FIG. 7 as follows.A product mall 400 is shown to include stores A-F which carry productsdesignated as A1-N, B1-N, and so on, respectively (wherein each “N” isnot necessarily the same number of products). A consumer member maybrowse through the mall and capture various products from one or more ofthe stores into the member's product store. This may be accomplished byscanning or otherwise electronically capturing and recognizing uniqueproduct id tags provided with the respective products, or browsing andcapturing the product offerings in an electronically hosted environmentconcomitant with being at the product or otherwise in the store. Viawireless connectivity between the consumer member's computing device andthe respective hosted environment including the stores as vendor members(e.g. as shown lower in the FIG. 7), these respective vendor members areinformed of these respective product captures by the consumer member.Prior to leaving the store, the consumer member may initiate a purchasetransaction for one or a bundling of the products previously captured.Or, the consumer member may leave the store without initiating any suchpurchase.

Certain aspects described immediately above are exemplary of a broaderaspect of this disclosure wherein vendors may provide offers to consumermembers related to saved items (or similar items) in their respectiveconsumer product stores. In addition to other descriptions providedelsewhere herein related to such aspects, it is contemplated as wellthat the environment may permit vendors to provide promotions or offersregarding such saved items (and/or related items) to the respectiveconsumer member. Such vendor ‘pushed’ offers may include their ownindicia or ability for consumer member inputs or responses in order toconduct a transaction related to such vendor offer—such as for examplepurchase, save, share, or re-sell (including, e.g., one-click or one-tap‘buy now’ transaction, or otherwise). In these, and other regards, suchvendors may provide such communications (incl. offers, promotions, orotherwise) directly to the consumer member, or tie such to the productor item itself within the product database of the environment which thentranslates over to the consumer member having saved that product or itemwithin their respective consumer product store (and/or may be availableto the consumer member upon ‘browsing’ or otherwise viewing such productor item prior to saving it in the environment).

The connectivity of the store vendors to the consumer member's capturedproducts into the consumer member store provides a number of distinctbenefits. In one regard, the vendor's ability to know what products theconsumer member is capturing for potential purchase can help direct themost appropriate customer service real-time to the consumer member toassist or prompt along a ‘like’ to conversion into a completed salestransaction. Moreover, a real-time ability to offer discounts to theconsumer member is also provided via a ‘pushed’ offer from the vendormember to the consumer member's app. This also may include bundleddiscounting offers, as well as additional products offered into suchbundling that the consumer member may not have previously tagged orsaved into the consumer member's store. Moreover, such bundling may beoffered in a syndicated fashion between multiple vendor stores regardingtheir respective products found in the consumer member's product store(and potential revenue/profits splitting between them).

This also provides a potential opportunity for other vendor members tocompete for a sale. By accessing the consumer member's capturedproducts, competing offers may be made prior to the consumer memberinitiating a purchase transaction. While this feature may competeagainst vendor members wishing to participate, other revenue sharingfeatures that may flow from a final purchase back to an originatingvendor member who first exposed the consumer member to a product mayprovide supplemental revenues back to the original vendor source despitenot making the final sale.

In still a further embodiment, location tracking of the consumer member(e.g. via wireless, cellular, or otherwise global positioning system or“GPS” tracking) may also be deployed to monitor the consumer member'slocation relative to the shopping experience and progression. This mayalso assist the host vendor member store in directing sales assistanceto the consumer member. This may also help monitor the consumer'slocation relative to the items initially saved into the consumer memberstore, including recognizing when the consumer member may have left thearea without completing a purchase of the saved item(s). This may alsoprompt an ability to launch an offer from the vendor member to theconsumer member in order to consummate product sales that mightotherwise have been lost.

It is appreciated that the Product Mall 400 described above and shownmay be an actual product mall, e.g. with multiple retail stores, asdescribed. However, the aspects of the embodiments described above mayalso similarly apply to a single store as the ‘product mall’ and withmultiple departments for example as the ‘stores’ within the mall. Instill other regards, the framework of mall and stores therein may alsobe applied figuratively, in the sense that the ‘mall’ may be a hostedelectronic environment where shopping between multiple vendor sourcesmay offer products (e.g. web/internet), and the ‘stores’ may be multiplevendor or product brokerage websites or environments hosted via the web.

In still another further embodiment, the consumer product store, and theconsumer's location (e.g. via GPS), may be accessed by vendors in acombination mode such that the consumer member may be ‘pinged’ under theenvironment by vendors offering products for sale that are saved in theconsumer member's product store, and who are located geographicallyclose to the consumer. For example, a feature within the consumer memberUI may allow that consumer to poll the system at any time regarding whatproducts in that member's product store are available for sale, at whatterms, within a desired geographic range around that consumer's locationat the time. Or, such information may be pushed to the consumer member'scomputer hosted app (or stored into or cached for voluntary consumeraccess into some memory). In this latter embodiment, for example, aconsumer driving down the road might receive a message (either as hosteddirectly within the environment, or otherwise via the environment butalso using another messaging platform such as texting, email, etc.) thata product in its consumer product store is available at a particularstore he/she is driving nearby.

In further embodiments of various aspects herein described, therespective environment is configured and operated to use open standardsfor authorization (“OAuth”, e.g. as described for example athttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth) and application program interface(“API”, generally a set of routines, protocols, and tools for buildingsoftware applications and that specifies how software components shouldinteract—used for example when programming graphical user interface(GUI) components). These are leveraged, in certain such embodiments, toconnect the various transactions (e.g. saved item sharing, advertising,vendor offers pulled or pushed for saved items in consumer productstores etc.) of consumer members within the environment to otherenvironments such as separately hosted social networks. These howevermay also be accompanied by certain filters or protocols of the hostenvironment to control or limit certain communications, securityconsiderations, etc.

In general summary, the various detailed embodiments described aboveprovide a powerful and disruptive environment in which consumers andtheir potential product purchasers are much more directly, andefficiently, connected to the vendors of those products in order tomaximize the capital and other resource efficiencies of convertingproduct ‘likes’ for potential purchase into actual product purchases.These benefits are provided, in one regard, by configuring theenvironment around the products themselves—in many aspects vendoragnostic—which allows the buy (consumer) and sell (vendor) side ofultimate transactions around those products to be optimized. Varioussuch embodiments are thus also transformative regarding how consumermembers shop for products, and how vendors target product offerings toconvert likes into sales, such as for example in malls or othermulti-vendor product offering environments (either physical, or virtualvia the web) and with more efficiently enhanced e-Commerce transactionsand related computing efficiencies. For example, inventories of saveditems in consumer product stores and sales items offered in vendorproduct stores are saved within the same database system (althoughperhaps different portions of it), and within the same managed eCommerceenvironment. This provides for optimally efficient matching of purchasedesires and sales offerings within that environment, and versus theoften prolonged and tedious repetitive browser based ‘search and find’approaches more traditionally used within conventional internet/webplatform. By further tying various such embodiments to consumer andvendor locations, such as via global positioning system (GPS) tracking,further improvements and efficiencies are also thus achieved connectingconsumers wishing to purchase specific products to the closest vendorsof those products (and visa versa).

Business-to-Consumer-to-Consumer (B2C2C) Social Commerce (sCommerce)Environment, System, & Method

By providing consumer members with this capability of creating their ownitem stores with their own item inventories from which purchasetransactions can be initiated and conducted, it is also appreciated thata social commerce (sCommerce) network environment may also be providedin which consumer members as ‘source consumer members’ may share theirrespective stores (or identified portions of item inventories withinthem) with other consumer members as ‘recipient consumer members’, andeither further evaluate or purchase such items from other members'respective stores as they might from other sources of items for sale.According to this environment, such source consumer members becomeintegrated within the supply chain of the item itself. This augments thereach of items for sale to target purchasing consumers via socialnetworks. Among many other benefits, this environment thus enhancesbusiness-to-consumer (B2C) targeted product marketing and advertising byleveraging certain consumer-related similarities that might be foundunder social network groups that are defined by people inviting othersto be grouped or ‘follow’ each other.

It is appreciated that items shared under these present embodiments maybe initially sourced from various walks of life, including as elsewhereherein described with respect to stocking a consumer product store withsaved item inventory. In certain embodiments, such products or items ofthe consumer member itself may be shared to others according to thesecurrent aspects, either via their respective consumer product store orotherwise. For example, a consumer member may save a picture of hisliving room, or himself, into his consumer product store (or otherhosted ‘store’ for sharing). Certain products or items featured in thepicture may be tagged by the consumer member (or by image recognition orotherwise) to the product such that they may be linked via consumermembers who are recipients of the sharing to conduct their ownrespective transactions with respect to such tagged item. Such sharing(per this embodiment or others) may be performed within, or outside of,social networks. As described according to further embodiments, rewardsmay be provided back to the source (or subsequent) consumer member whoshared the item ultimately resulting in such transaction (e.g.purchase).

It is also appreciated that the broader eCommerce Environment 50provides a number of opportunities for sharing of items between consumermembers of the environment, including outside of the consumer membercreated stores described immediately above. For example, any opportunityin which a consumer member observes an item within the environment maybe an opportunity for that consumer member to flag that item for sharingwith one or more other consumer members, either directly or indirectly,such as for example via a social network supported within theenvironment.

According to an embodiment of this aspect, an electronicconsumer-to-consumer (C2C), and which may be initiated by abusiness-to-consumer-to-consumer transaction as B2C2C, social networkcommerce (sCommerce) environment is provided in which products and/orservices (collectively ‘items’) of subscribing vendor members of theenvironment may be made available for purchase, or reviewed forpotential purchase, to subscribing consumer members of the environment.A consumer member may register, in an account corresponding with thatconsumer member of a C-C sCommerce database, one or more such items asbeing associated with that consuming member—such as for example toindicate that the registering member likes, supports, recommends, isconsidering purchasing, or has purchased, the item. The registeringmember may then share such registered products or services with othersubscribing consumer members of the environment—such as either by‘pushing’ such registered items to other consumer members, or byproviding such other consumer members access to the registered products,such as a source consumer member sharing access to its respectiveconsumer store inventory to other consumer members (as described above).

According to one further mode of this aspect, the sharing of items fromone source consumer member to one or more other recipient consumermembers is tracked and recorded with a sharing record stored in the C-CsCommerce database. Certain benefits or rewards are also provided for agiven source consumer member. Examples of such benefits or rewards mayinclude points or credits, such as under an account (e.g. eCommerce bankcard) with credit or currency purchase power (i.e. ‘fiat currency’) thatmay be applied or redeemed within the environment itself, or outside ofthe environment. In an embodiment, a reward to a source consumer memberwho shared an item is provided as a discount price for that sourceconsumer member for that item. Or, in another embodiment for furtherillustration, general purchase credits may be provided and redeemablefor any item purchase (or pre-defined category of item) purchased withinthe environment. Such rewards may be based, for example, on percentagecommission on item purchases that are made downstream from a sharing bythe source consumer member. These may also be spread across multipleconsumer members who might have shared an item in a thread leadingultimately to a purchase, such as shown in FIG. 6 at Other Members 198.In a further embodiment, such reward system may be analyzed andimplemented for example in a weighted or sliding scaled fashion andstructure, with higher rewards provided to the source consumer memberwho most closely and directly shared with the recipient consumer memberwho made the purchase, and lower rewards to interim consumer members whomerely passed along a prior sharing. In another embodiment, anoriginating source member may also have more rewards than interim sourcemembers merely passing along a sharing, as despite being potentiallyfurther removed from an ultimate purchase, the thread that lead to thatwas nonetheless started at that member.

Moreover, tracking of sharing and purchase patters within such a socialnetwork may also assign consumer members with scaled ‘grades’ or‘levels’ within the environment that may affect their status or standingwithin the environment. E.g. a consumer member may be a ‘gold’ or‘platinum’ or ‘bronze’ based on number of rewards earned, and whichstatus may related to different benefits (or restrictions) for thatconsumer member related to its capabilities and interactions within theenvironment.

It is to be appreciated that such weighted reward system, such as notedin such embodiments above, may provide certain incentives such as, forexample, to initiate a sharing thread for an item, and/or to moreaggressively advocate an item being shared to a recipient to purchasethe item, and/or just to generally share more items.

Additional Embodiments

Further aspects and more detailed embodiments of this sCommerceenvironment and related system and methods are elsewhere hereindescribed, such as for the disclosure referencing to FIGS. 2-7—andincorporated to apply similarly here for this portion of thedescription.

Certain embodiments herein described provide an enhanced eCommerceenvironment as a social commerce (sCommerce) environment for harnessinginterplay within social networks as a means for promoting and carryingout commerce with respect to items of high commercial interest by thegeneral public and others.

Certain present embodiments also provide environments and relatedsystems and methods that employ a product database having, for each itemavailable for sale within the environment, all a consumer member of theenvironment needs to make a purchase decision and start the orderprocess from a first exposure to an electronic representation of (orelectronic tag related to) a product.

In certain modes of certain embodiments, it is to be appreciated that abuyer can acquire (e.g. download or otherwise install) a software-based‘app’ for a computing device, and enter a purchase trigger by scanning aprinted code associated with a product representation in a form of mediaexposed for observation by the consumer. In certain regards, this may beconducted from a print ad. However, in other regards it may be conductedin relation to a product representation provided within a mediatransmission, such as for example capturing and recognizing an audio tagor ‘snippet’ (e.g. portion of a transmission) from radio, TV, or amotion picture and associating the tag with the embedded product.According to still further modes, the trigger may also be acquiredduring social media interaction between parties, such as for example byactive or passive sharing of saved information within linked members ofa social network. In still further modes, such triggers initiate asequence placing an item on order, debiting an account, and shipping theitem as a “one-click” (or ‘tap’ in the case of touch screens forexample) transaction. However, in still further embodiments described,certain such steps may be presented to the user following a purchaseprocess initiation in order to ensure and confirm the consumer user hasall information necessary to complete the purchase decision and relatedtransaction.

In still further aspects of this disclosure, an environment and relatedsystem and method provides for user graphical perspective design andarrangement of items for sale. Among other benefits, when a collectionof items being reviewed satisfies a buyer, the entire group of items maybe placed on order, billed and delivered (even though from differentvendors), in one batch purchase (although an option for a series ofseparate purchases may also be provided as appropriate in certaincircumstances).

Certain descriptions provided herein relate to initiating or conductingpurchase transactions. It is to be appreciated that such may be animmediate one-click purchase (or ‘tap’ in the case of touch screens forexample)—e.g. a price and/or delivery terms may be presented to theuser/consumer to immediately choose and complete purchasing via apre-established purchase account linked to the consumer's account viathe environment. In other embodiments, however, a purchase transactionmay also be conducted via multiple consumer member inputs. According toone such further embodiment, the consumer may be presented with theproduct and an ability to initiate a purchase transaction, but then bepresented with product price and/or delivery terms to confirm thechoice. Moreover, the consumer may be presented with either option notedimmediately above, but then be prompted to enter payment information(e.g. credit card, electronic credit/debit/redemption accounts, etc.).

Certain descriptions provided herein also reference monitoring ofconsumer activity, such as for example via a “Post-Publication DB”referenced in certain Figures in relation to sharing between consumermembers under an sCommerce ecosystem provided and supported by theenvironment. According to a further embodiment, and which may beimplemented under and in combination with other embodiments hereindescribed, other product-related purchases and activities of theconsumer members themselves are also tracked. Such activities mayinclude, for example, accessing and reviewing products within theenvironment, sharing between consumer members (as already describedabove), and/or product scanning or otherwise saving into a wish list(such as according to consumer product store embodiments elsewhereherein described). Such tracked data may be stored in a database managedwithin the environment, and for monitoring and identifying trends andpractices that may be generalized across the consumer members of theenvironment, or across the vendor members and/or their related products,or may be more specifically linked to a particular consumer member,group of consumer members (e.g. within a social network or otherwise),vendor member or grouping of vendor members (e.g. within a category),product or group of products, geography, or other commerce-relatedmetric related to consumer-product trends and activities (e.g. age,gender, pricing, timing etc.).

While various embodiments are herein described by reference to one ormore ‘products,’ it is further contemplated that such embodiments maysimilarly include and apply for certain services or other items (e.g.collectively “items”) available for sale. In a further regard, thevarious current embodiments are herein described by reference to imagesor other sources of information related to such products or other itemsfor sale. It is to be appreciated that such item-related images or otherrenderings may be captured and/or otherwise made available in a numberof different ways and which are still contemplated within suchembodiments whether or not specified in this disclosure. For example, aconsumer member may take its own pictures of items, or environments, viaits own camera and which may provide the image contemplated within aparticular embodiment.

In still a further regard, it is appreciated that certain consumerproduct store embodiments may include items identified for sale by theconsumer member itself (i.e. not necessarily from an otherwiseidentified vendor member). According to one example for illustration, aconsumer member may take a picture of its living room, and manually tagand identify products in the living room picture associated with theconsumer member for sale to other consumer members with whom the taggedpicture is shared.

In still another regard, various present embodiments contemplate certainleveraged uses of social networks or other form of sharing within theenvironment and related to enhanced sCommerce. Such sCommerceembodiments may use, for example, social networks as sources of productsor other related information. It is further contemplated that othercommercially available environments such as provided via “Instagram™” or“Pinterest™” may be linked or otherwise integrated within theenvironment contemplated by the present embodiments. Such may provide,for example, sources of items or environment images on which activitiesare conducted by consumer members according to the present embodiments,or may provide a destination venue for linked sharing of items fromwithin the environment.

The present disclosure also provides various descriptions of products oritems, or images, which are selected or otherwise identified for certainpurpose-related activities. It is appreciated that, according to varioussuch embodiments, such items may be rendered on a user interfacedisplay, and which rendering may be clicked or tapped in order toinitiate a certain activity related to the item. Such activity may thenbe conducted, for example, by clicking or tapping another displayed iconor other text or graphical indicator for the activity, or by dragging orswiping the item to such icon or indicator.

For example for illustration, under certain indexed virtual realityembodiments herein described, a canvas viewer window may be provided forimporting an environment image and then a related product image into theenvironment image. The environment image and/or product image may bemade available within another window on the display, and which can thenbe clicked or tapped for selection and then importation into the canvasviewer window, again such as by either then clicking or tapping adesired location within the viewer, or dragging or swiping the selectedimage to the respective location.

In another example for further illustration, a browser window may beprovided in a display, with a toolbar window also provided on thedisplay and with certain icons or other text or graphical indicia forcertain operations available to a user. According to one embodimentunder this example, a product viewed in the browser window may beclicked or tapped, and dragged or swiped to such an icon on the toolbarassociated with the consumer member store, or associated with aparticular sharing target or group, to thereby immediate conduct thesaving or sharing activity related to that product. For still furtherillustration, the embodiment immediately above may also similarly applyto a fused, indexed virtual reality image of a product embedded withinits environment (per such related embodiments elsewhere hereindescribed).

It is further contemplated, among the present embodiments, thateCommerce activities and transactions are managed in a highly securedmanner between registered vendor and consumer members of the controlledeCommerce environment. For example, security tokens and/or organizationidentifications (ID) may be required in order to become a registeredmember of the environment. Moreover, certain regulations may beimplemented regarding member status and transactional behavior withinthe environment, with monitoring conducted in order to maintain (orconversely lose) member status and related privileges. In a furtherexample for illustration, items available from vendor members andaccessed by consumer members may be regulated to only evoke certainlinks related to only certain related activities, and to prevent others(e.g. to prevent potential phishing, fraud, or other restrictedactivities).

Various aspects, modes, and embodiments herein shown and described,including by reference to the Figures, have been presented in thecontext of a combination system with multiple functionalsub-environments within a broader managed eCommerce environment andsystem architecture, such as for example provided at sub-environmentsshown at 65, 70, 75, 80, and 85 within eCommerce environment 50 inFIG. 1. Such combined environment provides a number of distinctbenefits, such as for example sharing various support structures andactivities, such as for example for providing common databases withproduct ID and other product purchase-related information that may beotherwise derived from different sources, and/or tracking and providingbenefits to consumers or businesses for sharing items with otherconsumers potentially resulting in downstream item purchases. Examplesof product ID information that may be suitably provided within suchproduct databases may comprise one or more of quick response (QR),general specifications (GS1), or universal product (UPC) codes.

However, it is also to be appreciated that each such sub-environmentrepresented by such various more specific aspects, modes, andembodiments of this disclosure are also independently beneficial, and donot necessarily require inclusion within the broader eCommerceEnvironment 50 or in combination with the other aspects, modes, andembodiments disclosed. For example, each of the sub-environments shownat 70, 75, 80, and 85 of FIG. 1—and their related system architectureand methods, respectively—may be provided alone and without requiringfurther combination with others of these sub-environments. Moreover,sub-combinations between less than all of these sub-environments arealso herein contemplated within the scope of this disclosure. Stillfurther, such individual sub-environments, and the combinations andsub-combinations between them, may also be further combined with otherfeatures and sub-environments providing other value to members of therespective environment.

Certain embodiments are herein described by reference to variousprocessors and user interfaces including user input interfaces and useroutput interfaces such as “displays”. It is to be appreciated thatnumerous specific embodiments for such interfaces may be appropriatelyprovided to meet a specific need and target environment of users, orsubject matter, whether or not specifically shown or described.According to one particularly beneficial system implementation, however,a respective environment embodiment will be implemented via aweb-enabled service and related support engines, networked systemenvironments, and interfacing devices. According to a still furtherbeneficial mode of this web service, the environment, system, andmethods are configured to support a user interface (UI) via a mobilecomputing device with a touch screen and by providing a UI applicationor ‘app’ that may be opened for interactive use by a touch iconproviding indicia for the respective environment and related service.This may be for example a ‘thin client’ software module, that may forexample be downloadable onto a mobile computing device, and configuredto interface via internet connectivity with a remotely locatedenvironment host computer or server (or computer or server network) thatprovides an underlying engine for hosting transactions via the UIprovided via the app. Such ‘app’ approach may also be provided via othercomputing devices, including in certain implementations wherein adisplay may be separate from other UI input devices, e.g. keyboard,mouse, etc., versus touch screen.

Such applications contemplating use of mobile computing devices caninclude, for example, a multi-functional computing device for cellulartelephony/messaging (e.g., feature phone or smart phone), a tabletdevice, an ultramobile computing device, or a wearable computing devicewith a form factor of a wearable accessory device (e.g., smart watch orbracelet, glasswear integrated with a computing device, etc.). Accordingone such example for illustration, a scan or “airtag” related to aproduct registered under the environment can be captured via a smartwatch or other mobile computing device by a consumer member during areal-life experience or observation and stored in the consumer productstore for later review, purchase, or sharing—or for immediate purchaseor sharing.

One or more embodiments described herein provide that methods,techniques and actions performed by a computing device are performedprogrammatically, or as a computer-implemented method. Programmaticallymeans through the use of code or computer-executable instructions. Aprogrammatically performed step may or may not be automatic.

One or more embodiments described herein may be implemented usingprogrammatic modules or components. A programmatic module or componentmay include a program, a subroutine, a portion of a program, or asoftware or a hardware component capable of performing one or morestated tasks or functions. As used herein, a module or component canexist on a hardware component independently of other modules orcomponents. Alternatively, a module or component can be a shared elementor process of other modules, programs or machines.

Furthermore, one or more embodiments described herein may be implementedthrough instructions that are executable by one or more processors, suchas computer processors. In the case of such computer processors, theseinstructions may be carried on a computer-readable medium. Machinesshown or described with figures below provide examples of processingresources and computer-readable mediums on which instructions forimplementing embodiments of the disclosure can be carried and/orexecuted. In particular, the numerous machines shown and/or describedunder certain embodiments include one or more processor(s) and variousforms of memory for holding data and instructions. Examples ofcomputer-readable mediums include permanent memory storage devices, suchas hard drives on personal computers or servers. Other examples ofcomputer storage mediums include portable storage units, such as CD orDVD units, flash or solid state memory (such as carried on many cellphones and consumer electronic devices) and magnetic memory. Computers,terminals, network enabled devices (e.g., mobile devices such as cellphones) are all examples of machines and devices that utilizeprocessors, memory, and instructions stored on computer-readablemediums. Additionally, embodiments may be implemented in the form ofcomputer programs, or a computer usable carrier medium capable ofcarrying such a program.

The various embodiments of this disclosure also include a userinterface. In certain embodiments, this may include, for example, agraphical user interface (GUI). The user interface in certain suchembodiments can present information to a user, such as for example theproduct or other item information referenced in certain embodiments,and/or their environment(s) of use, and/or other related informationsuch as purchase information. The user interface systems may alsoinclude user input as well as user output interfaces (such as displays).According to some embodiments, the user interface can be a passivedisplay or an active touch display (e.g., a capacitive or resistivetouch screen). Further examples may include, for example, display andrendering platforms such as: “Magic Leap™” (such as described atwww.magicleap.com); or “Oculus Rift™” provided by Oculus VR™ (such asdescribed at www.oculus.com); or Google Glass™” provided by Google (suchas for example described at www.google.com/glass).

FIG. 8 illustrates certain further examples of a system architecture forproviding and supporting an eCommerce Environment 50, and consideredapplicable under the various embodiments elsewhere herein described.More specifically, one or more processors are shown that operateaccording to a set of instructions to perform various operationssupporting a user interface system that includes a user input interfaceand a user output interface provided generally as a display. A user mayaccess the eCommerce Environment 50, such as via web access, and whichmay be for example via “cloud”-hosted application, and/or which mayentail wireless connectivity, via a remote computing device that may befor example as elsewhere herein described and/or according to theexamples shown in FIG. 8 (e.g. laptop, notebook, etc.). The userinterface/display may take many different specific forms, generally withone or more windows serving particular purposes within the managed userinterface environment. In the example shown in FIG. 8, a window of thedisplay provides a “toolbar” that comprises a number of N features (e.g.graphical features, e.g. identifiable functions or “icons”) that may beselected by a user for further operation according to the respectivefeatures' intended uses. An interactive viewing window of the display,and which in some embodiments also provides a user input interface,provides functionality for the operations invoked by selecting one ormore of the features. For further illustration, a number of N panes(which may be the same or a different number than the N features) areprovided in the interactive viewing window, and to allow differentinteractive operations to be performed in each pane in relation to thefeatures selected from the toolbar. For example, one or each of thesub-environments elsewhere herein described (e.g. Indexed VirtualReality Consumer Experience 70, World Experience Point of Purchase (POP)75, B-C-C sCommerce 80 and related integration & reward system, andConsumer Product Store 85) may be represented and invoked by respectivefeatures in the toolbar, either separately or in parallel—and withrespective interactive functionality provided via the various differentpanes.

According to one particular example for further illustration, IndexedVirtual Reality Consumer Experience 70 may be provided via a featureicon in the tool bar. Upon selecting this feature to invoke thisenvironment for a consumer experience, panes may be opened in theinteractive viewer window that may include, for example, a canvas viewerpane, a product image pane, and an environment image pane. The productand environment image panes may provide a browsing window to browse anumber of images for selection by the user. Upon selecting anenvironment image from the environment image pane may be clicked anddragged, or tapped and swiped, into the canvas viewer pane. A productimage may then be selected from the product image pane and similarlyimported into the canvas viewer pane for incorporation into theenvironment image. In still another example, the consumer product store85 may also be represented by a respective feature icon in the toolbar,and/or as a pane provided for that functionality. A product, or indexedvirtual reality image, may be selected from one pane and then moved tothe consumer product store pane (or simply to the respective icon) inorder to save that product image into the consumer product store.

It is further appreciated that other functional “selectable”features/icons may also be provided, despite not being specificallyshown or described, to implement various operations supported within therespective environment provided. For example, one or more socialnetworks and/or groups thereunder may be accessed for sCommerceexperiences via such an icon and related browsing/viewing arrangement.

While the user interface of FIG. 8 provides one example, other specificuser interfaces (e.g. display) may be designed and rendered differentlyfor different types of users, e.g. vendor members versus consumermembers, and may provide for certain customizability with respect tolay-out and/or features presented to the user within the toolbar (e.g.chosen default features to suit a particular user members' preferredactivities, and/or sub-folders such as for example categorizing itemssaved in a respective user's consumer product store).

The above examples described by reference to FIG. 8 (and as also shownin FIG. 9 for still further illustration) are considered furtherbeneficial embodiments of this disclosure. However, it is appreciatedthat various other specific implementations may be made, either inaddition or alternative to the examples shown and described, withoutdeparting from the intended scope of this disclosure and as relates toother embodiments described herein. For example, other layouts of ascreen display related to features/icons, and/or interactive or viewingpanes, etc. may be made for a particular purpose and still remainconsistent with this disclosure.

Various embodiments herein shown and described are further summarized asfollows. An electronic commerce (eCommerce) environment is provided tofacilitate multiple financial, product purchase, and sharingtransactions between subscribing vendor members and consumer members ofthe environment. The environment is securely operated via one or morecomputer processors operated according to a set of instructions in acomputer readable medium, and a user interface system with a user inputinterface and a user output interface, such as a display. The userinterface may include a touch screen of a mobile computing device, suchas a mobile phone or notepad, and may be presented as an applicationinvokable via a touch icon on the touch screen. Digital images ofproducts provided by vendor members may be imported into digital imagesof environments of intended use by consumer members (e.g. furnitureproducts in rooms, clothing or jewelry on people, etc.). Vendor membersmay also embed media transmissions (e.g. movies, pictures, shows,advertisements, audio) with representations and ID/purchase informationtags for their respective products, services, or other sales items, andwhich can be scanned by (or otherwise identified to) consumer members toenable purchasing, saving for later purchase, or sharing of theproducts. A business-to-consumer-to-consumer (B2C2C) social commerce(sCommerce) environment rewards consumer members for sharing productswith other consumer members. Consumer members are allowed to createtheir own consumer product store by creating an inventory of saved itemssourced within the environment, and that is maintained within theirconsumer member user account (which may be off-line or otherwise) forlater access, recall, and purchase (or sharing or other form oftransaction). Sharing of consumer product stores between consumermembers provides a consumer-integrated marketplace within the B2C2CsCommerce environment.

It is thus to be appreciated by one of ordinary skill that furtherembodiments of the various broad aspects this disclosure above are alsocontemplated, either in addition to or in the alternative to the moredetailed examples described above or by reference in the Figures.

For example, while various aspects of this disclosure may reference‘purchase’ transactions, it is further contemplated that such isexemplary of a more general scope of ‘transactions’ that may beconducted with or around a product or service featured in the aspectdescribed. For example, even a purchase transaction may take multipleforms. In one regard, an item may be bought/acquired and owned as aresult of such a purchase transaction, and which may apply to tangiblephysical goods or electronic products (e.g. mp3s, DVDs, other audio orvideo files such as eBooks, etc.). Or, such purchase transactions mayinstead purchase a license for limited permitted use, such as forexample a rental of such types of products described above.

Other transactions contemplated hereunder may also be, for example,saving/storing, reviewing, or sharing—either in conjunction with orapart from purchasing. In addition, however, other activities are alsocontemplated within such broad scope of ‘transaction.’ Moreover, forembodiments related to tagged media transmissions or performances, thetagging and transaction may often relate to one or more featuresembedded in or otherwise associated with such media performance (e.g.the name of a singer and/or identification to the specific performancefor purpose of voting in a contest setting) vs. tagging and transactingaround the whole of the media performance itself (e.g. recognizing andpurchasing the actual singing performance itself).

In one particular such further example, a consumer member may conduct a‘voting’ transaction (e.g. vote) in relation to an item saved,scanned/tagged, or otherwise featured under the respective embodiment.In one exemplary mode of this aspect, the various aspects of the WorldExperience POP 75 environment, e.g. as elsewhere herein described byreference to FIG. 4, may instead apply to voting for the respectivescanned or tagged item—in the alternative (or in addition to) saving,sharing, or initiating a purchase transaction for such scanned or taggeditem.

According to one such further embodiment, this may apply for example toperformance contests wherein an audience of a media transmission for theperformances votes on their favorite (or conversely least favorite)performance of the contest. This may be conducted, for example, byscanning the performance itself, which triggers (either by a feature ofthe performance itself or an embedded or otherwise corresponding tag) alink to a voting input that can be actuated and/or transmitted by theconsumer user back to the appropriate contest environment for entry andcounting. For further understanding, this may be applied, for example,to performance contests such as hosted by the television broadcastprogram “The Voice™.” This provides the distinct benefit of transformingand further automating, via more efficient computing interface and fewerrequired user steps or inputs, the original performance transmission tothe consumer's vote entered and received by the contest host.

In another further example, a consumer member may conduct a ‘funding’transaction under the hosted environment—as may be distinguished in manycases from a purchasing transaction per se. Such may be for variousnon-profit or for-profit causes. In one example for illustration, apolitical campaign advertisement transmission may be tagged with a linkfor making a campaign contribution. Other examples may further includeother transmissions related to causes which may be similarly funded bysuch consumer members in the receiving audience.

Certain aspects of this disclosure address media transmissions, andrelated media performances and media content contained therein. It isappreciated that a media performance comprises both active (e.g. in theact of the performance) and static states (e.g. an electronic form of aperformance that may be invoked by an appropriately formatted player).

Certain other aspects of this disclosure are described by way ofexamples embodied in commercial relationships and transactions betweenconsumers and vendors of products (and other items)—such as for examplein B-to-C contexts for product sales/purchases. Other aspects are hereindescribed by reference to C-to-C (consumer:consumer) relationships.However, it is appreciated these terms themselves are relative labels.For example, such aspects of this disclosure that position consumersrelative to vendors in potential eCommerce transactions may also besimilarly applied to other circumstances, also contemplated hereunder,between businesses (e.g. B2B). For example, various such embodiments asherein described present similar benefits for transactions in supplychain procurement, such as for example facilitating requests forproposals or “RFPs” (i.e. solicitations, often made through a biddingprocess, by an agency or company interested in procurement of acommodity, service or valuable asset, to potential suppliers to submitbusiness proposals).

Certain aspects of this disclosure also reference consumer and/or vendor‘members’ in context of ‘subscribing’ to the hosted environment of therespective embodiment described. It is to be appreciated that suchsubscription may be beneficially a fee-based service in certaininstances. However, it is also to be appreciated that such subscriptionmay not require such fee payment in other instances. In some examples,such ‘subscription’ may thus merely reference a member with a respectiveuser account (and related information related to performing therespective hosted activities) registered within the system. In otherapplications, ‘members’ need not be registered or subscribed at all—butcertain such embodiments may be made available to them for their use inconducting such e-commerce transactions under a footprint providingother benefits than provided by fee subscriptions (e.g. wider reach andaccess between consumers and vendors, although information such aspayment information and the related ability to transact purchaseswithout such being provided in advance, security risk management, etc.may be compromised in such less managed non-registered uses).

The following references are herein incorporated in their entirety byreference thereto: U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.62/018,500, filed on Jun. 27, 2014; U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 62/020,936, filed on Jul. 3, 2014; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/020,947, filed on Jul. 3, 2014; U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 62/023,070, filed on Jul. 10, 2014; U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/053,590, filed on Jul. 11,2014; U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/024,589, filed onJul. 15, 2014; U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/027,660,filed on Jul. 22, 2014; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.62/073,808, filed on Oct. 31, 2014. The disclosures of these referencesare considered further embodiments which may be implemented or adaptedwithin the broad scope of, or in combination with, certain embodimentsherein shown and/or described, as will be apparent to one of ordinaryskill based upon a review of the totality of this disclosure.

Although illustrative embodiments are described in detail herein withreference to the accompanying Figures, variations to specificembodiments and details are encompassed by this disclosure. It isintended that the scope of embodiments described herein be interpretedbroadly, except where expressly limited. Furthermore, it is contemplatedthat a particular feature described, either individually or as part ofan embodiment, can be combined with other individually describedfeatures, or parts of other embodiments—including such combinations thatmay not be specifically described or shown herein, as apparent to one ofordinary skill based on the totality of this disclosure. Thus, absenceof describing such specific combinations does not preclude suchcombinations from the intended scope that are contemplated and/or may beclaimed herein, either specifically for such combination or as includedwithin a broader scope intended to cover such combination among otherpossible embodiments.

Although illustrative embodiments have been described in detail hereinwith reference to the accompanying drawings, variations to specificembodiments and details are encompassed by this disclosure despite notbeing specifically described. It is intended that the scope ofembodiments described herein be defined by claims and their equivalents.However, the right is preserved and not waived to claim various aspects,modes, and/or embodiments disclosed herein despite such being absentfrom the originally or later filed claims. Furthermore, it iscontemplated that a particular feature described, either individually oras part of an embodiment, can be combined with other individuallydescribed features, or parts of other embodiments. Thus, absence ofdescribing combinations should not preclude the inventor(s) fromclaiming rights to such combinations.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for creating, managing, and conductingtransactions through, a consumer-controlled electronic product store,comprising: providing an eCommerce environment comprising a databasesystem, a user interface system comprising a consumer interface operableat least in part by at least one consumer computing device to receiveuser inputs from and provide information to the consumer, and at leastone computer processor; operating the at least one computer processor toprocess a set of instructions to: receive at least one subscriptioninput from the consumer via the consumer interface to subscribe as aconsumer member of the environment by creating a consumer member accountwith a corresponding consumer ID and one or more respective consumermember records within the database system, and such that the consumermember may log off-line out from and then log on-line back into theenvironment via the consumer interface; provide a readable storage inthe database system for the consumer to store an inventory of saved itemrecords under the consumer member account as a consumer product storecontrolled by the consumer; in response to item save inputs from theconsumer member via the consumer interface, store item records, whichcomprise item identification (ID) information tagged to correspond withand identify respective items for potential purchase, in the consumerproduct store under the respective consumer member's account; maintainthe consumer member's inventory in the consumer product store while theconsumer is logged off-line from the environment, such that the saveditem records are thereafter recallable by the consumer member from theinventory at a later on-line access event and time; and in response to atransaction input for a saved item record, conduct a transaction for therespective item.